Join a conference on food safety and whole genome sequencing

An international conference will be held on 26-28 March 2019 in Paris with a focus on how the use of whole genome sequencing can increase food safety, help prevent disease and provide a useful tool in outbreak investigations. The National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, is co-organizer and several of the institute's experts will give presentations.

A fast determination of which organisms are making people sick is crucial both to being able to effectively combat the spread of bacteria and virus and to stop disease outbreaks.

Whole genome sequencing, WGS, is a promising tool that is increasingly used to quickly find and analyze disease-causing microorganisms from food or humans through analysis of DNA in a sample. Over the past few years, the cost of equipment to extract organisms’ genome sequences has reduced drastically making WGS available to more players worldwide.

When experts gather at a conference in Paris on 26-28 March 2019, the focus will be on how the use of genome sequencing can increase food safety, help prevent disease and provide a useful tool in outbreak investigations.

The scientific presentations will e.g. cover the latest developments in the methods and tools used to interpret data. They will also look at possible ways to use genome sequencing to improve food safety in the future. As such, the potential for using metagenomics—in which all DNA from both the food and the microorganisms that are present are analyzed at one time—will be highlighted with particular focus on detection and analysis of viruses.

Several experts from the National Food Institute will give presentations at the conference.

The conference is organized by the French ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation,de l’environnement et du travail), in cooperation with the National Food Institute, the German BfR (Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung) and the South Korean NIFDS (National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation).